H&E Wrench Co slide adjustable monkey wrench restoration

[BreeStephany]

When we first moved to Oregon, my partner found a H&E Wrench Co slide adjustable monkey wrench at a local shop and bought it for me.

At first glance, I thought it was yet another 'gimmicky' wrench until I actually tried using it. Much to my surprise, the slide action was VERY smooth and easily actuated/adjusted while being very tight. The jaws are tight and maintain position, even when significant force is applied.

The wrench is in great shape, almost rust free and while tarnished, is almost rust free. What I found truly beautiful is the simplistic design, beautiful consistent milling marks, and deep, very clean manufacturer's mark.

Its clean, in good shape and restoration, while not truly necessary, given the condition, I think it could be cleaned up.



I have restored my fair share of tools, but this one I want to do differently. I dont want to run it on the wire wheel because I want to preserve the clean and beautiful machining and clean makers marker.

My thought is to lightly scotchbrite the surfaces to bring bring an even tone across the tool while preserving it as it. There isnt any clearly evident rust, so I dont really want to soak it in evaporust. I want to keep the adjustment screw in its current polished state and leave it 'as-is'.

As with any resto, I will likely let it soak in trichlor to remove all of the oil from the wrench and use a toothbrush to clean out any dirt / debris.

I do like the dark color of the wrench, and while I have seen these polished up and beautiful, I am thinking of cold bluing the handle, jaw, and adjustment ring and then using SimiChrome to lightly polish the adjustment screw.

I do appreciate the simplicity of bluing and feel it would accurately reflect the 'factory' finish without damaging its overall originality.

As always, I truly value to input of everyone in Garage Journal, so would appreciate thoughts and recommendations on cleaning this up / restoring it.

 

[Private Lugnutz]

When we first moved to Oregon, my partner found a H&E Wrench Co slide adjustable monkey wrench at a local shop and bought it for me.

Your partner has good taste!

would appreciate thoughts and recommendations on cleaning this up / restoring it.

I wouldn't touch it.

I have one, by the way. Further reading here if you're interested...

Hemphill & Evans patent 1,391,179 (1921) and 1,449,386 (1923)
These magnificent nut wrenches were made and sold by the H & E Mfg Co in New Bedford, Mass., as the “HandE” (pronounced “Handy”), cleverly named after the first initials of the last names of the inventors and manufacturers.

 

[Leviton]

I like your thoughts on minimal work. Since you are soliciting various opinions, here is mine.

The patina is so great, I'd chose NO abrasive cleaning. (If you feel you must, maybe soak it with WD-40 for a day and then just light pressure with #0000 steel wool or very fine Scotch-Brite.)
My guess is that getting an even patina will not be possible without aggressive abrasives which I think would be a bad idea.

I'd stay away from bluing (unless you know for sure it was originally blued) - at least for the first attempt. After you finish cleaning, go with some Fluid Film or light Boiled Linseed Oil and see how it looks. If you don't like that, then clean off the Fluid Film or BLO and go for the bluing.

I'm just throwing out what I would do as one option, since you were asking. I know you know what you are doing (based on your other work) so whatever you do will be fine.

What a great find.

 

[WisJim]

I'd degrease it, clean it up, use some Fluid Film or similar on it and use it occasionally. That's what I did with mine.

 

[four.cycle]

so would appreciate thoughts and recommendations on cleaning this up / restoring it.

^ I am in the "do no harm" camp when it comes to this sort of thing.
Suggest you take a look at some of the "before and after" examples I've posted - start HERE- scroll down - there are at least a dozen examples in that thread and I took different approaches on them.

On that unit, I would go no farther than a soft brass brush and a can of WD-40.

Steel bristled brush, wire wheel, or ScotchBrite pad will permanently alter the finish.

 

[BreeStephany]

I wouldn't touch it.

I admit that on most of my restorations, I tend to value 'new' appearance and overall tool functionality over true preservation of condition, but to date, most of my restores have been on 'newer' tools which are for the most part in much worse condition from the start.

Given the overall good condition of the tool in its current state, I think its best to leave it as is. There is a part of me that really wants to blue it and make it 'new' again with my own flair / appearance by bluing it, but given it's age, I do agree that preservation is probably the mest route at this point in time. Time to find space in the tool box, cut some foam and give it a new home as is.

 

[RTM]

I prefer to leave my tools looking vintage. My usual weapons are a razor blade for gross rust. A sand flex block to knock the residual t down and simichrome polish applied and removed by hand to give it that nice finished surface. Applied gingerly it doesn't take off the patina.